Great Valley upsets Cougars for state berth

By
Brad Spahr, Daily Local News

Thursday, May 23, 2013

LOWER MERION - This past Saturday, the No. 8 seeded Great Valley High School boys lacrosse team saw its district title hopes dashed when they lost to top-seeded Radnor in the quarterfinal round of the District 1 playoffs. All was certainly not lost, however, for the Patriots.

They were dropped into the consolation bracket where they were faced with the daunting task of having to win two games in order to earn District 1’s fifth and final state tournament berth. They handled their first must-win situation on Tuesday by defeating Upper Dublin. That left Great Valley with one final challenge, beat fellow Ches-Mont League foe Downingtown East for the first time in the eight-year history of their program and they were in states.

On a rainy Thursday afternoon, the Patriots defied all the odds as they did in fact upset second-seeded Downingtown East by a score of 14-10 in their District 1 fifth-place playoff game at Harriton High School.

“We don’t do things easy here,” laughed Great Valley coach Tony Verna. “Downingtown East is a damn good team, and this means everything in the world, especially for the seniors who were here four years ago, when times weren’t so good. I love this team and this group of kids, and I’m really proud of them.”

Great Valley (18-5 overall) will be making its second straight appearance in the PIAA tournament. They’ll open up in the first round of the state playoffs on Wednesday against District 1’s second-place team, Garnet Valley, at a neutral site and time to be announced. Garnet Valley lost a heartbreaker to Avon Grove in the district championship game on Thursday night, 5-4, after freshman Bryce Reid scored the game-winner with 0.8 seconds left.

The Patriots got a huge game from a freshman of their own in rolling past Downingtown East (14-8), as attacker Ethan Joseph netted five goals. Junior Greg Merrill also came up big with four goals, and senior Tyler Haines added three. Senior goalie Peter Hayes was sensational, making 14 saves in the contest.

Great Valley found themselves clinging to a 6-5 lead at halftime. Just when both teams were about ready to take the field to start the second-half, lightning struck in the area. Due to that, the game was delayed a mandatory 30 minutes.

When play resumed it looked as if Great Valley was shot out of a cannon, while the Cougars could simply do nothing right.

The Patriots scored six straight goals to start the third quarter, an offensive barrage that catapulted them to a 12-5 lead with 3:21 left in the period. During that time, Downingtown East had possession of the ball for a total of 15 seconds and never once in Great Valley’s half of the field.

After two goals by Merrill in the first four minutes of the third quarter, Joseph delivered the knock-out punch by scoring three in a row. Haines capped the furious rally with a goal.

“We went into a classroom in the school during that delay, and we were basically just sitting around while coach was talking to us,” said Joseph. “We knew we wanted to come out as hard as we could, and we ended up coming out on fire. We controlled possession and dominated play there for a good stretch.

“It’s hard to put into words how big this win is for us. We wanted this game so bad, especially since we had never beaten a good team like Downingtown East before.”

To Downingtown East’s credit, they fought back hard after the air had been left out of their balloon in the first nine minutes of the second half. Led by senior Brandyn O’Connell, who netted a team-high five goals, the Cougars clawed to within 13-8 after three periods of play.

Downingtown East continued to apply plenty of pressure in the final 12 minutes as they fired a total of nine shots on goal. However, they were unable to get much closer thanks to some outstanding play in net by Hayes, who had seven saves in the fourth quarter.

“Our offense gave us that huge confidence booster to start the second half, and that took a lot of pressure off me out there,” said Hayes. “Our defense played great in the last quarter and I just tried to stay focused and help us keep our lead.

“This win means the world. Especially because of all the adversity we faced and the long road we had to take to get to states. It’s an awesome feeling to be going back to the state playoffs.”

Great Valley never once trailed in the game. They led 4-3 after one quarter of play, as Joseph got them off to a fast start by scoring the first two goals of the contest. After an even second quarter of play, the Patriots maintained their one-goal lead, 6-5, going into the break.

They then exploded for seven goals in the third period after nearly a 50-minute delay, that included 10 minutes for halftime and then approximately 40 minutes due to the weather.

“We got a nice little break there and were able to get refreshed,” said Verna. “We played extremely well in the second half. We turned the ball over to our best player, Greg Merrill, and we asked him to help clamp this thing down for us.”